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Raccoons are smart

Charmonium

Charmonium

Lifer
I think I may have posted about this before but in case I didn't, I've tried to give as much background as possible w/o being too boring.

As you may remember (or not) I have a food bowl on my back porch. The cats mostly eat from it during the day but they also come at night. The raccoons only come at night of course.

I have PIR alarm set to play the radio when it detects heat. This mainly to keep the birds away. So far it's worked pretty well. I sometimes see on blue jay and one blackbird landing then running away. But if they're eating any of the kibble, it's not very much.

I also mentioned that I have a 50lb weight that is supposed to secure the bowl and the alarm. So a couple of days ago, the raccoons moved everything. I don't know how, but they did. And they turned the alarm upside down so it wouldn't go off.

So I didn't leave any food out the next day since I didn't/don't have any way to fix this immediately. The raccoons turned the alarm back to facing up which I took to mean they understood it shouldn't be moved. And viola, last night they moved the bowl again but not the alarm. I'm really curious to see what they do tonight.
 

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Raccoons are extremely clever and also very fast and effective learners with life-long memories.

Also while they don't quite have the manual dexterity of a primate they do have the ability to easily manipulate small/delicate objects.

In addition to this a good-size raccoon can destroy almost any dog 1-on-1 and they can even be dangerous to smaller people although (unless rabid) they would much rather run and hide then do anything aggressive.
 
Captante said:
Raccoons are extremely clever and also very fast and effective learners with life-long memories.

Also while they don't quite have the manual dexterity of a primate they do have the ability to easily manipulate small/delicate objects.

In addition to this a good-size raccoon can destroy almost any dog 1-on-1 and they can even be dangerous to smaller people although (unless rabid) they would much rather run and hide then do anything aggressive.
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Funny story. I periodically try to round up the ferals and get them neutered. I use a couple cages from the shelter and a couple I bought. Unfortunately I had trouble figuring out how the cage worked. The next day, a woman cam in with the same cage. I asked how she figured it out. She said she watched a video of a raccoon breaking out of one.
Captante said:
Dibs on his post-count!
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IDK, won't that make you a no-lifer? 😉
 
There is a series of these pictures out there showing them helping each other over a fence:

amazing-teamwork-by-raccoon-family-to-climb-over-a-wall-image10.jpg



I've also seen when something is too high for one, it will stand as tall as it can and another will climb up its back (piggy back) to get higher.
 
We had a covid racoon hitting up out bird feeder. I trapped him and dropped him off in a non-residential area.

They can do a lot of damage. Best to get rid of them.
 

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Captante said:
Phew!

Not sure I could handle Covid-Raccoons on the offensive ... it would be all over!
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They're somewhat territorial in nature and don't overlap much in urban environments unless they're family. Very interesting creatures. There's a cool documentary about raccoons. They tagged them and they kind of stay in the areas they know..

www.pbs.org

Raccoon Nation ~ About | Nature | PBS

New insights about a species that is far more smart and wily than most ever imagined. Is city life cultivating “über-raccoons,” ready to take over the world? Watch a preview of Racoon Nation.
www.pbs.org www.pbs.org
 
They certainly are.

They developed a way to rob my cage trap of it's meaty morsels and not get caught. Sneaky bastards.

I responded by switching to multiple marshmallows smeared with peanut butter. Translates to more arm wrestling and licking on their part. The new community in a wooded lot, two river crossings away from my property, has restarted it's growth I'm happy to say. I like not having to pick up trash and recycling a second time.
 
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